


Cosmic Joke And The Heavenly Bodies

by Sophisticated_Adult



Series: A Good And Chill Ship (The Ship Is On Fire) [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Pacifist Route, Sans/Space, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 19:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7544653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophisticated_Adult/pseuds/Sophisticated_Adult
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grillby asks Sans what his favourite star is and ends up joining a space band. He's okay with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cosmic Joke And The Heavenly Bodies

**Author's Note:**

> Probably the most self-indulgent thing I've ever posted online, also you have no idea how close I was to asking StackExchange 'could a fire elemental use binoculars' before deciding to cop out with ~magic~
> 
> PS this ship is so chill and so good just bury me in it  
> PPS why is Sans/Space not a tag what has this fandom even been doing with itself  
> PPPS Had to delete & repost this because it wasn't showing up in the tags??? Thanks AO3

Grillby wobbled slightly once they exited the shortcut and relaxed his death-grip on Sans’ hand only when his vision stopped spinning.

“sorry, i forget this takes some getting used to.” Sans was all apologies, but Grillby waved him off. He was fine. He just. Needed a moment. He was convinced he’d never get used to these things, however cavalierly Sans used them.

“all right,” Sans said after a moment, almost to himself. “hey, check it out.”

Grillby obliged. He knew Sans was watching him and probably couldn’t stop grinning (even moreso than usual, anyway), but he didn’t care. He was right, this was nothing like the city. Thousands of points of light speckled the sky, shining softly over his upturned head. It seemed like an age before he said anything.

“I can see why you like them so much.”

“that all you got?” Sans chuckled. “yeah, it’s a little overwhelming, ain’t it?” Grillby nodded, glad Sans had insisted on dragging him out here to an empty field in the middle of nowhere, away from all the city lights that drowned out the spectacle above them each night. Although, when he’d first heard of ‘light pollution’ as Sans was grumbling about it one day, the skeleton had laughed him off when Grillby wordlessly pointed to himself. “nah, i bet proper dark skies’ll still be better even if you ruin my night vision every five seconds. you’re worth it, grillbz.”

It was honestly one of the most romantic things Sans had ever said to him.

Back in the here and now, Sans produced a  blanket from the over-large backpack he was carrying and laid it out on the ground, then rummaged around inside before triumphantly holding up a pair of binoculars. “telescope’s a real pain to set up, but we’ve got it just in case. nothin’ wrong with a good pair of binocs for your first time.” One of the lights in his eyesocket winked on and off.

Grillby’d done some very basic reading, initially in an attempt to understand at least some of what Sans was talking about whenever he got excited, perhaps even _fired up_ about his job at the observatory, although when the word ‘spectroscopy’ came out it was his cue to give up all pretence and just nod along until words and sentences started making sense again. The point was that Grillby was well aware that he was not the expert here and was content to take Sans’ lead on this.

“try focusing ‘em a bit.” Grillby took the offered bincoculars, was assured that they should work with his glasses, and followed Sans’ instructions on focusing it until the image was sharp rather than fuzzy.

“ok,” said Sans, looking up once more and critically eyeing the scene overhead. “see leo? the trapezium with a sickle for a head. although sometimes it’s a tail.” Sans pointed out the constellation in question, off to their left. Grillby nodded, although Sans could have said just about anything and he’d be more or less in the dark (unless it was an obvious joke, of course).  “right. see the super-bright star just below it? that’s a planet. It doesn’t shine on its own, it just reflects the sun’s light. 's called jupiter.”

A planet. Grillby was looking at another world.

The binoculars mostly resolved it into a bigger, brighter sphere. Grillby fancied he could maybe see a line across it that would be one of the bands of atmosphere (he’d seen pictures, most of them shoved into his face by Sans, so he wasn’t totally ignorant) but it could be a trick of the light or he could just be making it up because he wanted to see it. Either way, he looked at it for a few more moments before he took off the binoculars and offered them to Sans. “You should get a turn.”

“sure.” Sans turned to face Grillby, lifted the binoculars, then paused. “actually, it’s probably not a great idea to look directly at fire with these things. uh. let’s see what else we got.” He swung around to scan the night sky instead.

“Do you have a favourite star?” Grillby asked in a moment of inspiration. Sans seemed to think for a moment before he nodded.

“well…actually…see the big dipper?” Grillby turned towards where Sans was pointing to the sky on the opposite side from Leo and its visiting planet. It seemed a surprisingly obvious choice for someone like Sans. Grillby’d half expected for him to reply with something obscure with a cool fact about it, like a star that was actually a black hole or something. Still, he waited to see where Sans went with this. “right. the star that’s the middle of the handle, second from the left? 's actually two stars - a binary pair. mizar and alcor. i liked to think of 'em as me an' papyrus when i was a kid.”

“That’s adorable.”

“heck yeah it is.” Sans grinned and shoved his hands in his pockets, leaving the binoculars to lie on his chest from the strap around his neck. “obviously paps is the main one, mizar, because he’s the coolest. i’m the little jerk you need to squint at to see properly.”

“You’re not a jerk.”

“my shining light, always ready to defend my honour.” Sans chuckled. “the humans have been real busy with astronomy since we went underground. turns out mizar itself is a binary system, so it’s two stars as well. and _those_ stars are binaries too, so it’s actually four stars. and alcor has its own companion star these days. so that one star you’re looking at is really six stars. that’s pretty rad. it’s binaries all the way down.” Well, now it made sense why Sans had picked that out as his favourite.

“lessee now.” Sans held his hand out and began holding down each finger as he counted off. “there’s me an’ paps, obviously. undyne’s his best friend so she’s in. can’t have undyne without alphys, so she can come too. and…well, my bro loves mettaton, so i guess i’ll let him in. huh. look at that. 's just alcor’s pal left.” Sans extended his pinkie finger and waggled it in Grillby’s direction. “hey grillbz, wanna join our band? i hear it’s _out of this world_.”

Grillby hoped Sans didn’t notice a brief moment of pure serendipity as the perfect response swiftly arrived in his head.

“That would be….stellar.” He knew he’d timed it right when Sans’ eyes brightened, and Grillby let himself show just a small smile with his mouth that he knew that Sans knew was his equivalent to a huge grin that indicated he knew exactly what he’d just done.

"oh my god.” The already bright eyelights widened. “didn’t even know you had it in ya, grillbz. i’m so proud.” Sans reached up to wipe at a non-existent tear from his eye.

Grillby laughed and leaned down to kiss the top of his skull.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The Papyrus-Mettaton comment can be taken whichever way you want either way I'm into it


End file.
